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Health insurance as a productive factor

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  • Dizioli, Allan
  • Pinheiro, Roberto
Abstract
In this paper, we present a less-explored channel through which health insurance impacts productivity: by offering health insurance, employers reduce the expected time workers spend out of work in sick days. Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), we show that a worker with health coverage misses on average 76.54% fewer workdays than uninsured workers, after controlling for endogeneity. We develop a model that embodies this impact of health coverage in productivity. In our model, health insurance reduces the probability that a healthy worker gets sick, missing workdays, and it increases the probability that a sick worker recovers and returns to work. In our model, firms that offer health insurance are larger and pay higher wages in equilibrium, a pattern observed in the data. We calibrated the model using US data for 2004 and show the impact of increases in health costs, as well as of changes in tax benefits of health insurance expenses, on labor force health coverage and productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Dizioli, Allan & Pinheiro, Roberto, 2016. "Health insurance as a productive factor," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-24.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:40:y:2016:i:c:p:1-24
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2016.03.002
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    2. Naoki Aizawa & Hanming Fang, 2015. "Equilibrium Labor Market Search and Health Insurance Reform, Second Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 15-024, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 28 Jun 2015.
    3. Phuong Huu Khiem & Yu-Chen Kuo, 2022. "Health insurance reform impact on children’s educational attainment: evidence from Vietnam," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1255-1285, December.
    4. Naoki Aizawa & Hanming Fang, 2020. "Equilibrium Labor Market Search and Health Insurance Reform," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(11), pages 4258-4336.
    5. Susanna Thede, 2018. "A model of trade, task offshoring and social insurance," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 787-802, October.
    6. Argys, Laura M. & Friedson, Andrew I. & Pitts, M. Melinda & Tello-Trillo, D. Sebastian, 2020. "Losing public health insurance: TennCare reform and personal financial distress," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
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    8. Elena Grinza & François Rycx, 2020. "The Impact of Sickness Absenteeism on Firm Productivity: New Evidence from Belgian Matched Employer–Employee Panel Data," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 150-194, January.
    9. Hanming Fang & Andrew J. Shephard, 2019. "Household Labor Search, Spousal Insurance, and Health Care Reform," NBER Working Papers 26350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Otsu, Yuki & Yuen, C.Y. Kelvin, 2022. "Health, crime, and the labor market: Theory and policy analysis," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
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    12. McBain, Florence, 2014. "Health insurance and health environment: India’s subsidized health insurance in a context of limited water and sanitation services," Working Papers 179200, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    13. Syamsiyatul Muzayyanah & Cheng-Yih Hong & Rishan Adha & Su-Fen Yang, 2023. "The Non-Linear Relationship between Air Pollution, Labor Insurance and Productivity: Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-20, June.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health; Health insurance; Labor productivity; Labor markets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • J78 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Public Policy (including comparable worth)

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